Jealousy
by dragonfirechick
Summary: Ron has a confession to make... But he's so nervous... Oneshot, songfic, RHr, summer after HBP.


Sorry if there are any mistakes in the song lyrics… I typed them mostly from memory, and I haven't heard the song in a long time. Excerpts are in bold, and are from HBP chapter 19, OotP chapter 21, OotP chapter 9, and GoF chapter 19, in that order. Summer after HBP.

* * *

_Well, I know it's kinda late,  
__I hope I didn't wake you,_

Ron stood in the street outside the dark house, trying to recover his recently escaped courage. He couldn't chicken out now, not now. It was too late. He had already completed most of his plan, now he just needed to finish it. He had even spoken to her father, and if that wasn't frightening, he didn't know what was.

_But what I gotta say can't wait  
__I know you'd understand._

He closed his eyes and clenched his fists, taking a few deep breaths before walking unsteadily forward. It was past midnight, and it was time. His pocket was full of small pebbles, and he took a few out, tossing them upward towards a second story window. He cursed quietly as they fell short. There was a trick to this, getting the pebbles to hit the window without breaking it. He could have just enchanted them to fly up and tap on it, but he rather thought she'd like this way better.

_Every time I tried to tell you,  
__The words just came out wrong,  
__So I'll have to say 'I love you' in a song._

_Begin Flashbacks_

"**Then the poisoner didn't know Slughorn very well," said Hermione, speaking for the first time in hours and sounding as though she had a bad head cold. "Anyone who knew Slughorn would have known there was a good chance he'd keep something that tasty for himself."**

"**Er-my-nee," croaked Ron unexpectedly from between them.**

It wasn't the words that roused him. It was her voice. She was there, worried about him, sitting near him, and that made him feel so much better.

_Yeah, I know it's kinda strange,  
__Every time I'm near you  
__I just run out of things to say  
__I knew you'd understand._

"**Of course you're not," said Hermione absently, still scribbling away at her letter.**

"**How do you know?" said Ron in a sharp voice.**

He could have hit himself for saying that, but he was also mad at Harry. If he'd been kissing Hermione… Well, best friend or not, Ron would have to kill him.

_Every time the time was right,  
All the words just came out wrong  
So I'll have to say 'I love you' in a song. _

"…**we could do a sponsored scrub of the Gryffindor common room, all proceeds to S.P.E.W., it would raise awareness as well as funds—"**

"**I'll sponsor you to shut up about _spew_," Ron muttered irritably, but only so Harry could hear him.**

_Why can't she ever talk about me in that tone of voice?_ Ron wondered sadly. Her passion was reserved only for house elves, though, and he didn't know if he could even compete.

_Yeah, I know it's kinda late,  
I hope I didn't wake you,_

**Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl, who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.**

Ron stewed angrily as he read the article. It wasn't enough that Harry had gone behind his back to enter the Tournament, now he seemed to have stolen Hermione, too. Ron didn't want to believe it, but Hermione _had_ chosen to take Harry's side of the quarrel. _I guess I'll always be just second best,_ he thought glumly.

_End Flashbacks_

_But there's something that I just gotta say,  
__I know you'd understand,_

He was going to do this, no matter how hard it was. He couldn't stand just watching her anymore, watching other approach her, watching her write letters to Krum. He threw more pebbles upwards. These struck the window with a series of satisfying _plunks_. Feeling a little daring, he threw all the remaining pebbles. If she didn't wake up, he'd just go find more.

A soft light flicked on in her room and a figure approached the window, levering it open and leaning out to peer quizzically at the darkened lawn. Ron's breath caught in his chest. _Now or never,_ he thought.

"Hermione," he called softly. "Down here."

She gasped. "Ron! It's the middle of the night! What are you doing? How did you get here?"

He licked his lips anxiously. "I took the Knight Bus, and I-I have something to tell you." She started to say something, but he took a breath and interrupted. "I love you. I love you so much it hurts. When I see you with other blokes, I get so jealous, I just … I want to hurt them and steal you away from them. I want you to be near me forever. That whole thing with Krum … I hate him! And I hate myself for being such an idiot about everything, that he realized what a wonderful person you are before I did. And I … Please, I … I love you." The last few words were barely more than a whisper, and he trailed off, wondering what she was thinking.

She spoke, sounding very unsteady. "Stay right there," she instructed, backing into her room. "Don't move an inch."

Ron shuffled his feet nervously. What was she doing? Was she going to come out, or was she going to send her father to chase him away with a … what was it called, a gonne? She didn't know that her father had been the one to point out her window…

The front door of her house flew open and she rushed out. She threw herself on him and her arms around him, almost knocking him over. His arms went around her almost instinctively.

"Do you know how long I've wanted to hear you say that?" Hermione asked, voice muffled by the way her face was buried in his shirt.

"Is it anywhere near as long as I've wanted to tell you?" he asked, trying to joke. He bent his head closer to hers and whispered, "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied indistinctly. Ron tightened his hold on her and informed her that he was never going to let her go again.

Neither of them saw, less than twenty feet away, the match flare up, and neither heard the quiet chuckle of the man lighting his pipe. Mr. Granger hadn't been about to let any boy come near his daughter after dark until he could be certain of the boy's intentions. So he had hidden in the neighbor's shrubbery to observe. And the boy had done exactly what he had said he was going to do. Mr. Granger liked this boy. He could stay.

_Every time I tried to tell you,  
__The words just came out wrong  
__So I'll have to say 'I love you' in a song._


End file.
